Interdiction Mechanics

[Kaerli_Stronwylle]

The issue with the lack of criminal/bandit/... type characters in PS has been rattling around in my head for quite a while now, and I've come to the conclusion that in order for banditry and other nefarious RP to be able to leave the city walls, it needs one (only one!) mechanic to support it: interdiction.

Such a mechanic would allow a player character to build a non-lethal trap in a certain area that would hinder the movements of everyone that passed through that part of the world (i.e. slow them down to 10% of walking speed, or prevent them from moving for say two to five minutes), but not do any damage on its own.  It would use the existing (albeit unimplemented) "Set Traps" skill, and such traps would require materials to construct as well (say Arangma silk for an entangling trap, or alchemist's glue for something adhesive).

The non-lethal nature of this mechanic -- in other words having it only affect the mobility of victims instead of inflicting damage through falls, poisons, spikes, or explosions -- is needed to prevent an unattended or abandoned trap from being fatal (or at least catastrophically RP-altering) to a character whose player has had no opportunity to consent to the RP that the trap was created for.  Of course, one could RP injurious traps atop this basic mechanic (all you'd need to do is put a book there describing what the trap does RPwise).

These traps would also "wear out" under this proposal, either after a set span has passed, or after a certain number of people have fallen into it.

Thoughts? Further suggestions? Questions? Flames?

* Kaerli_Stronwylle puts on the bunker gear...

[LigH]

Similar to the webs in MineCraft's abandoned mines?

I may like such an addition, even though I fear that some who don't want to be involved in such plots may dislike "being forced to participate"...

[Rigwyn]

Hmm... are these traps meant for role play or for game play? The two are very different.

With role play, you already have all that you need. You can simply emote the trap and those who are affected by the trap can react accordingly...

but but but... but what if they ignore it?

If people ignore it, it could be that they don't wish to participate. But then you could have a trap that forces people to participate... but wait... something smells fishy now. Do we really want to force participation in role play?

[cdmoreland]

I remember when someone(s) placed books all over Kada-El's about contamination by a disease with no cure and the like. Of course, there was no one in there and I avoided it for a long time.

[bilbous]

You could always put up a barricade, across the forest path say, made up of crates and quarterstaves, for example, so people will know you are not just afk in the path. People would still be able to ignore it if they wish but others would have some indication you are trying to waylay them. I'm not sure why nobody has ever tried this, that I've seen. They just stand there and hope they can react fast enough when a potential victim passes by. As long as you keep a close eye on it, you should not be dinged for littering.

[Kaerli_Stronwylle]

Hmm... are these traps meant for role play or for game play? The two are very different.

With role play, you already have all that you need. You can simply emote the trap and those who are affected by the trap can react accordingly...

but but but... but what if they ignore it?

If people ignore it, it could be that they don't wish to participate. But then you could have a trap that forces people to participate... but wait... something smells fishy now. Do we really want to force participation in role play?

I'm trying to build a gameplay mechanism that can serve as a foundation for more sophisticated roleplay here.  This is the reason that I want something that is not trivial to ignore (unlike a purely RPed trap, which is likely to be missed by even a RPer if they're not looking for it OOCly), but does not force non-participants to RP anything besides a small loss of time.  In other words, my proposal strikes a balance between ignorability and consequences.

Barricades, a la bilbous' suggestion, raise issues with object loading lag (especially as many of the chokepoints in the current PS world contain region load zones) and item management (someone could snap them up while you were disconnected/crashed out).

[Rigwyn]

Open Planeshift-style rp seems kind of bad for that sort of thing, but a guided DnD style RP might be more conducive to situations and consequences that you can't just hand-wave away.